Top News | OpenEvidence soars: AI-powered medical information and answer service OpenEvidence just announced a fresh $200 million round. The Sequoia-backed company is now worth $6 billion on the back of quick growth, with the New York Times reporting that 15 million “clinical consultations” per month, up from 8.5 million in July. OpenEvidence raised the capital to train better models, and soared to $100 million worth of advertising revenue in about three months. Given that doctors and nurses use the service, it does have a juicy — and growing — userbase to monetize against. Signs of a bubble: Evernorth intends to list on the Nasdaq via a SPAC merger, bringing another ‘crypto treasury’ company to the public markets. Evernorth, however, is not yet another bitcoin-focusd play. Instead, backed by Ripple, the company intends to purchase gobs of Ripple’s XRP token. After Strategy made buying and holding bitcoin as a public company cool, the number of crypto treasury companies (bitcoin, ether, sol, and XRP-focused) has exploded. Precisely why they are needed when trad investors can purchase crypto exposure via ETFs is not clear, but the idea is certainly popular. Amazon recovers from its downtime (slowly): After a brutal day of sharp, and then lingering downtime, Amazon’s AWS cloud service is clawing its way back to full operational status. Starting early this morning, AWS region US-EAST-1 started to buckle, perhaps due to DNS issues, per Amazon’s status reporting. Instead of a short issue, however, a host of companies that depend on Seattle’s cloud footprint found their offerings dead in the water, or close to it. Downtime for a major cloud provider is bad. Lengthy downtime all the more so. Especially as Amazon is fighting for share of burgeoning AI compute market.
| TWiST 500 | Today on the show, Jason, Lon and I chewed through the bubble question. A recent op-ed argued that we’re likely in the midst of an AI bubble which, when it pops, will lead to some painful financial digestion for the market. Jason said during the taping that the current AI spending rush is about as frothy as a cappuccino, and will deflate into a flat white in time. | Meanwhile, a bit outside of the OpenAI and Mag7 capex conversation, AI model makers Anthropic have been busy working on product. The TWiST500 behemoth announced two things today: | Claude Code is coming to the web. Yep, if you are a developer that uses Anthropic’s coding tool you can now interact with it from your browser instead of your IDE. Or even from your mobile device, Anthropic notes in a blog. The iOS integration is “an early preview,” so don’t expect the world. But it really does seem that software-development-on-the-go is coming quickly. Updates to Claude for the life-sciences: With a goal of making its Claude family of models useful to companies in the life sciences from “early discovery through to translation and commercialization,” Anthropic has improved base model performance against benchmarks like BixBench, built new “Connectors” to external services like PubMed and 10x Genomics, and will build new science-focused ‘Skills’ for its models
| The updates come after Anthropic dropped the aforementioned ‘Skills’ capability and a new iteration of its small model family (Haiku 4.5). Busy times over at Anthropic mirror the torrid pace of news from OpenAI, which has rolled out a both product updates (Codex reaching general availability) and massive infra plans. | Given the general correlation between product velocity and startup success, it’s hard to be too down on the leading private-market AI companies. Even if, yes, on the GPU side of things, perhaps the market’s running a tad hot. — Alex | A message from AlphaSense | Get deeper insights into your business with the power of AI search and market intelligence. Start with a free trial at https://www.alpha-sense.com/twist | This Week in Startups | E2194: What is the deal with Deel? The HR and hiring startup is growing SO FAST, investors are willing to overlook the SpyGate allegations! Plus is the Mag 7 about to become the Mag 70? Why is legendary investor Roelof Botha so down on the potential of venture capital? How can startups use capital as a weapon? What are Claude’s new and improved skills? We answer these questions and more on a brand-new TWiST. | E2193: On a special edition of TWiST, Jason sits down for a 90-minute 1-on-1 chat with long-time friend and legendary venture capitalist Steve Jurvetson, as part of a wide-ranging conversation in the AI hype cycle, the significance of “neural networks” in nature, the return of nuclear power, the absurdity of discussions around “AI safety,” and much much more. | E2192: Jason is joined by his favorite new guest, Eric Glyman of Ramp, who has out for the whole show. Together with co-host Alex, they discuss Ramp’s mission to help startups spend LESS money, and delve into the payment company’s treasure trove of insightful business data. PLUS some pressing questions from founders, Jason’s favorite startup accelerators, why unemployment has spiked among male college grads, and much more. | TWiST Partner Offers | Quo: Quo, formerly OpenPhone, is the #1 business phone system that streamlines your customer communications. Get started free, plus get 20% off your first 6 months, at http://quo.com/TWiST Vanta: Compliance and security shouldn't be a deal-breaker for startups to win new business. Vanta makes it easy for companies to get a SOC 2 report fast. Get $1,000 off for a limited time at http://www.vanta.com/twist. LinkedIn Ads: Start converting your B2B audience into high quality leads today. Launch your first campaign and get $250 FREE when you spend at least $250. Go to http://LinkedIn.com/ThisWeekinStartups to claim your credit.
| Founder U is Coming to the MENA Region! | Our 12-week pre-accelerator—designed to help early-stage founders build and grow—kicks off this fall in Saudi Arabia. The first cohort launches in Riyadh on November 3rd, followed by in-person and virtual sessions throughout the program. Founders in MENA: this is your chance to turn your idea into a business and get world-class insights on building a successful startup. Apply today: https://mena.founder.university/ | SF Live-Work Space Now Available | Need a flexible living and working environment in San Francisco? This thoughtfully designed loft-style residence at 787 Bryant St., the heart of the vibrant SOMA district and the city’s creative hub, is now available for rent or purchase. Check the listing for more details. | The TWiST500 newsletter is the new, updated, and improved TWiST Ticker. |
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